Tuesday, February 16, 2016

“To be a success as
an author, all you need is ten thousand people, each willing to give you $10 a
year.”

I’m not sure who said that, but I read it recently and it
stuck with me. Ten times ten thousand is one hundred thousand. Which seems like
a very nice living to me too. However, if you’re writing and selling books,
you’re probably not getting ten dollars per unit sold.

I strongly believe in the ten thousand fans idea though, so
when you are planning your career, you need to think about what it will take to
get ten dollars from each fan every year—keeping in mind publishers or Amazon
are going to take their cut. So that may translate to three novels a year. Or a
dozen short stories. Or a novel and a webinar. Or two novels and merchandise.
What you offer fans, and how you get your ten dollars, is going to be unique to
you.

As a fan, my top choice would be to get three novels from my
favourite authors each year. I’d be paying more than ten dollars though, and
they would be getting a lot less. I bought the kindle version of ‘King’s
Rising’ the day it launched for $7, but I suspect C.S Pacat probably received
about $2 of it, depending on her contract.

For her to get $10 off me a year, I guess she’d have to
write five books. I would be extremely happy, but I don’t think she writes that
fast. Of course, C.S Pacat has a lot more than 10, 000 people buying her novels.

So who are your 10,
000 people?

If you’re going to have a loyal fan base, you need to know
who they are, so you can cater to their interests. It’s a bit recursive though,
since you’re trying to work out who likes your stuff, so you can write stuff
they like, so they like your stuff.

But let me put it this way: let’s say you write
action/horror and your audience is men in their 20s. Men in their 20s also like
things like video games and attractive women, and they worry about things like
their careers, finding a long term girlfriend (or boyfriend) and their role in
society. So if you had none of those themes in your first book, but added some
in to your second book, those men in their 20s would probably relate more with
your work and be even more likely to buy your next book.

But let’s say instead you write historical romance. Most of
your readers are women in their 30s and 40s. They’re not interested in video
games, sexy young women, or finding their role in society. Most women in their
30s and 40s are pretty confident about their role. They’d be much more
interested in stories that show women their age achieving goals, making a
contribution, being sassy and in control.

So to turn readers into fans, you need to know who they are,
so you can research their interests and the themes that matter to them and put
more of that in your work. Whatever you do, don’t make assumptions. It’s
patronising and probably bigoted. Do proper research. Talk to people. Ask
people who liked your work what other books they like, and why they liked them.
Take notes, then actually read those books. Most readers will talk about books
they love until the cows come home, then die of old age. I promise it’s not
hard.

Each time you write a book, before you start, make a note:

Target Audience:

Age?

Gender?

What themes and
conflicts interest them?

What other books are
they reading?

Why?

If you really pay attention to what people are saying, and
don’t just impose your own beliefs and attitudes over theirs, you’ll see a
difference in how people respond to your work. It will take two or three books
for you to really see the tangible effects of this. But in the mean time, it
gives you a sense of grounding. Particularly when you start editing, pull your
hair in despair and think: ‘Who will ever read this crap?’

It also helps, of course, in deciding what platform is best
for promoting your work. Go where your fans are.

Final Thought:

Remember, you’re not changing what you want to write to
cater to other people’s interests, you’re just adding in a little extra on top
of the stuff you are passionate about.

Wednesday, February 10, 2016

Due to circumstances outside my control (AKA: mystery
fainting for two weeks now), I am not only late on my blog post, but didn’t
manage to finish the one I planned to post about knowing your target audience.

Rather than skipping a week, I have decided to post a poem
for Valentine’s Day.

I know many of you don’t like Valentine’s Day, for various
reasons, however I always have. It’s so kitschy and a fantastic excuse to do
something outrageous to embarrass your loved ones in public. Like show up at
their work dressed only in balloons. Or that year I posted everyone packets of
instant mac’n’cheese with romantic cards attached.

This poem is probably a little sincere for my usual brand of
Valentine’s Day fun. Hopefully it has merit anyway.

Tuesday, February 2, 2016

Welcome to my five part series on Branding and Career
Planning. I will finish my
characterisation series. That’s next on the blog line up.This week though:

BRANDING AND CAREER - PART ONE: WHAT IS YOUR BRAND?

What sort of career
do you want?

When you’re thinking about your brand and career, you need
to know what an author brand actually is, and what sort of career you want.
Let’s start with the career part, because I think this is obvious to some and
confusing to others.

There are many types of writing career. There is writing
novels, one a year, every year. There is writing for TV or plays. There is
writing hundreds of short stories and chasing award accolades. There is
non-fiction writing. The ever mysterious children’s books. Writing for graphic
novels. Journalism. Magazine articles. You get the idea.

All of these have their own career trajectories and many
require very different skills to be successful. In this series, I am going to
focus on novels (and novellas) and a path that is reasonably suited to indie
published and traditionally published authors, or hybrids, like myself. However
you should sit down and think about what you want. If you have no idea, pick an
author you want to be like, and map their career path to give you some ideas.

What is your brand?

Firstly, what is a brand? An author’s name is not a person,
it’s a brand. A logo, of sorts. Apple, Stephen King, Sony, J.K Rowling. They
identify the quality and type of product being offered. In the case of an
author a brand is, generally speaking, a combination of your genre and
strengths.

In Stephen King’s case, you know you are likely getting a
certain type of character driven horror, a little slow, and a little wordy, but
beautifully developed with a lot of relatable characters and powerful
motivations. It will also be off-beat, original and strange.

In J.K Rowling’s case, you are getting easy-to-read prose,
very English settings, themes about class and financial inequality and
identifiable, easy to connect with characters. Of course, most people hear JK
Rowling and just think HARRY POTTER, however now she has done some other works,
it’s easier to identify which elements have been maintained.

So when you are identifying your own brand, you need to look
at your genres, themes and writing strengths. Specifically, what people enjoy
about your work. I have diversity in my characters and themes that address
disability, sexuality and identity. I am also well-known for my grimdark style.
People who like my writing, like those elements. That is the Talitha Kalago
brand.

Make a list of what you think your strengths are, and be
sure to ask people who have read your work. Write a few paragraphs about your
brand and what you want it to be, it will help with later exercises in this
blog series.

My romance brand has different strengths and themes, which
is why it is under a different pen name. There is not necessarily a lot of
cross-over between the fan base. Which brings me to the last point: you may need more than one brand.

Some people will insist
you need different brands for different genres. Some people lump everything
together and do just fine.I believe each
brand doubles the work load, but gets you four times as many readers and your
decision should be based on your time and your drive for success.

Why Have More Than
One Brand?

Because it makes it easier for readers to find books they
want to read. There is a scene in one of my horror novels where a monster
cannibalises its own infants. It’s very graphic. There is also a scene in one
of my romance novels where three band members have sex with a fan. It’s also
very graphic. I suspect there are very few people who would enjoy both of those
scenes equally.

So if all my books were published under the same name
(brand) people who brought both books would be disappointed with one or the
other. Because they have very little in common. Even if people love the first
three books by an author, if they hate the fourth, they probably won’t by the
fifth.

If you want a career as an author, you should always be
aiming to create repeat customers. This is more effective with different pen
names for different genres. However, two pen names is double the work. Three is
triple the work, and so on. More brands make things easier for readers; it does
not make things easier for you.

So what if you want to put it under the same name? That’s
fine. It just means your pool of readers will be much smaller. Because (in my
case) they will comprise of people who enjoy both scenes of graphic infanticide
cannibalism AND scenes of erotic, sensual four-ways. And, let’s face it, that’s
really just me and a few people who are in prison.

My Links

About Me

Born in 1985, Talitha is a geeky Australian writer who spends an unhealthy amount of time reading and watching horror movies. She also loves fresh water shrimps and snakes, and lives in a house dominated by various tanks housing both. She advises that shrimps are the best companions for writers; as they always look like they are typing. Snakes, on the other hand, simply knock everything off your desk—including keyboards, mugs, entire computers and shrimp tanks.
Talitha’s other interests include entomology, rock climbing, reading, web design, photography and video gaming.